“I love you too,” he murmured. “I don’t think I say that enough to you.”
Jay squeezed his hand. “Baby, I know you do.”
Rhett shrugged. “Still . . .”
“I need to go check on Jun-mei,” Jay said, undoing his seatbelt. “Make sure she’s all right.”
Rhett gave a nod. “I have to see King.”
Jay took his med kit out of the overhead and went to the back of the plane, and Rhett went to the front. He slid into the seat next to King and gave him a nod. King sighed, looking more tired than Rhett could remember seeing. “Didn’t want to sleep?” King asked.
“Nope.”
King scrubbed a hand over his face. “Shit got real back there,” he murmured. “Apparently, Frankston was right. General Yuan ordered the strike in South Sudan. Unsanctioned. Turns out he was in on the bioweapon sellout. Has shares in the big pharma company. Also has ties to Istomin. And you’ll never guess who else.”
“Who?”
“Parrish.”
Rhett stared at him. “Parrish?” he hissed. “The Australian Special Ops Command director that Harrigan and Garin took down?”
The same case that exposed a lot of undercover overseas operatives and why the Milvus Division was created.
“Oh yeah. The Parrish case blew the lid on a lot of these assholes.”
Rhett joined some more dots. “Gordian had ties to Istomin. Went dormant until he found his scientist in Tehran.”
King nodded. “And Frankston hijacked their deal, took the information. He’d been watching the whole thing for months. He knew China had found someone with immunity.”
Fuck.
“Yin.”
King nodded.
“Yin didn’t know,” Rhett said. “He had no clue. He learned his government tried to have him killed at the same time we found out.”
King nodded again. “And when he put his hand up to volunteer for Milvus, General Yuan fast-tracked him.”
“So he could keep an eye on him.”
“Use him,” King said. “He had extensive bloodwork done before joining. Hell, even we did bloods in his prelims; standard procedure.”
Rhett sighed. Fucking hell. “They used his blood for what?”
“To synthesise a cure.” King’s eyes met Rhett’s. “And I’ll be honest with you, we might do the same.”
“What?”
“It could save Myles’ life.”
Rhett let his head fall back with a groan. Fuck. It was a lot to get his head around. “Yin said he volunteered for Milvus so he could get Jun-mei out of the country. Eventually. He didn’t know how, just that he’d have a better chance to get her out if he had a passport without borders.” Rhett put his hands up in a don’t-shoot-the-messenger kind of way. “And you know what? I don’t blame him. I’d do the same. If anyone went after Jay, took his ID papers, kidnapped him, I’d tear this world apart. Personally, I think we should thank Yin for not going berserk and killing anyone who stood in his way. He showed restraint.”
King stared at him. “He broke that man’s jaw by prising his mouth open with his hands and his boot.”
Rhett shrugged. “Like I said. Restraint.”
King blinked and sighed, a moment of silence falling between them. “You trust him.”